THE LAST VESTIGES OF THE MURRAY RANCH

On one of her trips
back East, Pearl's nephew Bill Lewis was in town.
He told her that things were not going well in his
life, so Pearl invited him, his wife Rose, and their
three children out to the ranch. Pearl and Louis had
a small house built for themselves and left the main
ranch house to Bill and his family. "Now it was a group
of city folk on the ranch for sure," Pearl said. She
ordered a telephone and outside lights, and the place
became more "city-like."

It pleased her when people drove by and pointed at the
place, admiring what they had achieved. "So much is
there -- the earth where food can be planted, the
lovely sunsets, the air, and all that space to wander
away and get with God."

Pearl's description is of a
veritable desert Shangri-La, yet the Bellsons moved
away, and the reason, according to John Barry, was
that their paradise was overrun with parasites:

She told people
down in Hollywood what a great place it was. She built
a swimming pool there and a guest house and said
"come up and see me," so they used to come up and see her
so much that when she wasn't here they free-loaded her
to death. She says she couldn't stand the free-loaders
that came up from Hollywood,
so she sold it.

In The Raw Pearl
she did not seem to think
the move was necessarily permanent:
"We lived there for
nine years, and one day will probably live there again."

Nolie and Callie's five-acre parcel was sold to
William Freeman. In an informal interview in 2002, Freeman
said he bought the property from the widow Murray in 1970
or ‘71; he was not exactly sure which year. He said he
even got some of her furniture in the transaction, which
he still possesses.

Ebony Magazine photo, Feb. 1947

GUESTS WAVE GOODBYE AS THEY LEAVE MURRAY'S DUDE RANCH

Pearl came out to
her ranch once in a while, and William talked to her on
occasion, although he did not live on the property himself.
He rented the Murrays' little cottages to airmen from George
Air Force Base. He eventually sold the place, and in the
1980s it was converted into a weight-lifting gymnasium,
operated by a powerlifter named Jay McVeigh. Pearl and Louis
also disposed of their property.

In 1988 both properties
were in the hands of a receiver. At some point the structures
on the old Murray Ranch became infested with brown recluse
spiders and someone was bitten. The owners of the property,
according to Apple Valley Fire Captain Art Bishop, arranged
with the Fire Department to have the old buildings, not worth
salvaging by then, destroyed in a fire-training exercise.
Now when one drives by, the only thing left is Pearl's
hardy Arizona trees, and the once prominent ranch has slipped
into obscurity.